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Yuki-onna
Yuki-onna is a spirit or yōkai in Japanese folklore. She is a popular figure in Japanese literature, manga, film and animation. Appearance Yuki-onna appears on snowy nights as a tall, beautiful woman with long black hair and blue lips. Her inhumanly pale or even transparent skin makes her blend into the snowy landscape (as famously described in Lafcadio Hearn's Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things). She sometimes wears a white kimono, but other legends describe her as nude, with only her face and hair standing out against the snow. Despite her inhuman beauty, her eyes can strike terror into mortals. She floats across the snow, leaving no footprints (in fact, some tales say she has no feet, a feature of many Japanese ghosts), and she can transform into a cloud of mist or snow if threatened. Behavior Some legends say the Yuki-onna, being associated with winter and snowstorms, is the spirit of someone who perished in the snow. She is at the same time beautiful and serene, yet ruthless in killing unsuspecting mortals. Until the 18th century, she was almost uniformly portrayed as evil. Today, however, stories often color her as more human, emphasizing her ghost-like nature and ephemeral beauty. In many stories, Yuki-onna appears to travelers trapped in snowstorms, and uses her icy breath to leave them as frost-coated corpses. Other legends say she leads them astray so they simply die of exposure. Other times, she manifests holding a child. When a well-intentioned soul takes the "child" from her, they are frozen in place. Parents searching for lost children are particularly susceptible to this tactic. Other legends make Yuki-onna much more aggressive. In these stories, she often invades homes, blowing in the door with a gust of wind to kill residents in their sleep (some legends require her to be invited inside first). What Yuki-onna is after varies from tale to tale. Sometimes she is simply satisfied to see a victim die. Other times, she is more vampiric, draining her victims' blood or "life force". She occasionally takes on a succubus-like manner, preying on weak-willed men to drain or freeze them through sex or a kiss. Like the snow and winter weather she represents, Yuki-onna has a softer side. She sometimes lets would-be victims go for various reasons. In one popular Yuki-onna legend, for example, she sets a young boy free because of his beauty and age. She makes him promise never to speak of her, but later in life, he tells the story to his wife who reveals herself to be the snow woman. She reviles him for breaking his promise, but spares him again, this time out of concern for their children (but if he dares mistreat their children, she will return with no mercy. Luckily for him, he is a loving father). In some versions, she chose not to kill him because he told her, which she did not treat as a broken promise (technically, Yuki-Onna herself is not a human, and thus did not count). In a similar legend, Yuki-onna melts away once her husband discovers her true nature. However, she departs to the afterlife afterward the same way. In popular culture *In Kwaidan, a 1964 Japanese anthology ghost film. *In the game Sakura Clicker, an 2015 erotic idle clicker, you can meet a Yuki-Onna. *''Tales from the Darkside: The Movie'', a 1990 American horror anthology film, features the story, "Lover's Vow", which is based on Lafcadio Hearn's "Yuki-Onna" story. Instead of a Snow Woman, however, the protagonist's wife is secretly a gargoyle. *In The Snow Woman (Kaidan yukijorou), a 1968 Japanese film. *In Nurarihyon no Mago, a Yuki-Onna is a type of yōkai who hails from the Tono region. One of the most prominent members of the main character Rikuo Nura's Hyakki Yakō is a Yuki-Onna, who usually accompanies him at school undercover using the name Tsurara Oikawa. *In a segment of Akira Kurosawa's 1990 film Dreams, a team of mountain climbers gets caught in a blizzard. After the other men lose consciousness, the last conscious man encounters a beautiful woman, possibly Yuki-Onna but never directly referenced as such, who attempts to lure him to sleep and death. *In Vampire Princess Miyu, the character Reiha is a Yuki-Onna. *In the Bleach anime, a Zanpakuto spirit named Sode no Shirayuki (the sword is owned by Rukia Kuchiki) is depicted as a Yuki-Onna with near total mastery of ice. *In Rosario + Vampire, the character Mizore Shirayuki is a teenage Yuki-Onna described as a snow fairy. *In Akazukin ChaCha, Teacher Oyuki, Banana class's substitute teacher is a Yuki-Onna. *While clearly stated to be an alien princess, Oyuki from Urusei Yatsura is based on Yuki-onna. *In Dororon Enma-kun, the character Yukiko-Hime is a Yuki-Onna. *In Shinobi 3D, the first boss is Yuki-Onna. *In MythQuest, a 1990s Canadian TV show, Yuki-Onna is featured in Episode 4 "Minokichi". *The manga Jigoku Sensei Nube features a Yuki-onna named Yukime who falls in love with and eventually marries the titular character. *In Ranma ½, she is responsible for a snow blizzard and is accompanied by a Snow Monster Guardian. Also portrayed both as a child bearing a flute and a female adult. *American progressive metal band Symphony X has a song entitled "Lady of the Snow", based on the character Yuki-Onna. It can be found on the album Twilight in Olympus. *In the InuYasha anime, a Yuki-Onna serves as the antagonist of Episode 101. *In BlazBlue, a popular fighting game, one of the main characters, Jin Kisaragi's weapon of choice is a nihontō called Yukianesa, which allows him to use ice attacks. *In the 7th Touhou Project game, Perfect Cherry Blossom, the stage one boss Letty Whiterock is a Yuki-onna. *In Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z, she made an appearance in Episode 9 when the Powerpuff Girls crash into her property and throws them away, and when Fuzzy Lumpkins mistook her for Ms. Bellum after the Powerpuff Girls throws him in her property. *In YuYu Hakusho, the character Yukina (Hiei's younger sister) was born in an Snow Women only-village. *In One Piece, Monet (Caesar Clown's assistant) is nicknamed Yuki-onna by her use of the Snow Snow Fruit. *The Yuki-Onna appears in the movie The Great Yokai War. *In the Pokémon franchise, Froslass is based on the Yuki-onna. The controversial Pokémon Jynx is also based, in part in Yuki-onna. Like Yuki-onna, Jynx has ice-manipulation and no feet. *In Final Fantasy VII, Snow - a woman living alone in Great Glacier, who leaves behind Alexander Materia if defeated - is most probably based on Yuki-Onna. *In Inu x Boku SS, Nobara Yukinokouji (Renshou Sorinozuka's secret service agent) is a Yuki-Onna. *In The Girl Who Leapt Through Space, two characters mistake Itsuki Kannagi to be a Yuki-Onna because their space vessels frost as they pass near hers. *In Yu-Gi-Oh!, there are two cards based on a Yuki-Onna; "Mischief of the Yokai" and "Yuki-onna of the Ghostrick". *In "The Causal Angel" by Hannu Rajaniemi, Yuki-Onna appears as a witch in a zoku Realm, as a symbol for the pellegrini. *In Yume Nikki, one of the effects Madotsuki can collect turns her into a Yuki-Onna, and will make it start to snow. *In Megami Tensei, the demon called Yuki Jyorou is based on Yuki-Onna and in Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey she is referred to as "a type of Yuki-Onna". Yuki-Onna is also a demon in the Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children spin off series. *In Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East, Yuki-hime is a Yuki-onna. *''Monster Musume'' features a Yuki-onna named Yukio, a minor character running an onsen resort (which causes some problem due to her having poor tolerance for heat). *In Card Captor Sakura, the Snow card is based on the Yuki-onna and appears in the anime series. *Yuki-onna appears in issue 14 of DC Comics' Zatanna, in which she possesses Zatanna's cousin Zachary. *Appears in the manga Ushio and Tora. *In chapter 24 of the manga Perfect Girl Evolution (also known as The Wallflower), Sunako visits a friend in Hokkaido named Yuki, who is revealed to be a descendant of Yuki-Onna. *In the Japanese Autoway commercial from 2013, a ghoulish figure has an appearance similar to Yuki-onna. Gallery File:Suuhi_Yuki-onna.jpg File:Inuyashayukionna.png|Inuyasha Yuki-Onna (Magic the Gathering).png|''Magic: The Gathering'' Category:Characters Category:Sapient Beings Category:Spirits Category:Humanoids Category:Females Category:Cryokinetic Creatures Category:Comic Book Creatures Category:Yōkai Category:Movie Creatures Category:TV Show Creatures Category:Video Game Creatures Category:Immortal Creatures Category:Live Action Creatures Category:Animated Creatures Category:Legendary Creatures Category:Variable Aggressivity Category:InuYasha Universe Category:DC Universe Category:Variable Status Category:Japanese Characters Category:Magic: The Gathering Universe